Motivation and Conviction
Motivations are symbolic reasons why Persona do what they do. While we may never truly understand the multitude of thoughts passing through the mind of any Persona, certain generalizations can be made to color our understanding of their perspective. This allows for more depth in our Personas, and is perhaps the most important factor of the process. Conviction is an abstract number representing how fervently someone strives towards their motivations. Often, as we age, factors beyond our narrow understanding of the world blend into an incomprehensible background chatter, annoyances at best and problematic at worst. Once our convictions grow past a certain point, they become difficult habits to break, but less because we cannot, and more because we will not change our way of thinking. Thus, you will find, often Persona with a great deal of Conviction have it spread amongst several Motivations, but as it grows, specialize in only one Motivation or another. It is the natural way of things. HONOR “This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face.” Characters motivated by honor adhere to a personal creed of justice, regardless of whether anyone but themselves understand. In times of dire need, Honorable Persona have the capability to unleash hidden reservoirs of determination, striking unmistakable fear into their adversaries in the struggle toward righteousness. These are the lawyers that cannot be bought, the saviors from distant lands, the monster that knows not why they pull the trigger - only that every adversary has the face of the man who killed their children. In their own mind, they are always heroes, plunging into the breach time and time again with utter abandon, knowing fully well every fight may be their last. While honorable Persona are not always completely oblivious to moral grays, it is often their downfall. The most vile creatures to ever walked any earth are those who convince themselves they are just, and meanwhile consider murder and humiliation entirely justified against so-called ‘villains.’ Righteousness (Passive Benefit): When determining your total health, add your Conviction in Honor, including any points in Wrath or Martyrdom. Wrath The Wrathful are those who will not rest until they find vengeance. As unstoppable forces of fury, they are willing to tear down everything in their path to right the wrongs against them. Though the image of the wayward berzerker rending his foes limb from limb quickly comes to mind, this is not always the case. Often, the most startling examples are cold and rational strategists, designing meticulous schemes to grind down and humiliate their enemy into nothing. At their core, festers a need for absolute retribution. But wrath is a maddening thing, and vengeance begets vengeance in an endless and grisly cycle. Often, the Wrathful only encounter the full reality of what they are in the moment they hear the final shuddering breath of the one who made them into what they've become. Martyrdom Martyrs are those who, upon seeing the inequity of the many worlds, make a conscious decision to sacrifice everything in the war against it. The tragic flaw of them all will always be that their endless struggle will inevitably take from them everything they once fought to protect. Wisdom “Restate my assumptions: One, Mathematics is the language of nature. Two, Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. Three: If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge. Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature.” - Maximillian Cohen, Pi (1998) Those who walk the path of enlightenment desperately seek a truth behind the seemingly chaotic machinations of the universe. Each a philosopher in their own right, the Wise are not content with the myths and riddles passed down by tradition, and drive themselves to erudition or madness in pursuit of unknown secrets. To them, societal norms appear to be the unnecessary safeguards of primitive minds. Denying it all, they instead pursue knowledge --- be it arcane, scientific, or spiritual in origin --- for purposes as myriad as the seekers themselves. Frequent isolation leads the Wise shockingly close to the fringes of sanity. Too many fall into solipsism and paranoia. For this, and many other reasons, whether they intend to heal or conquer, the Wise are generally misunderstood by the vast majority of the population. These mad ones believe they are beset on all sides by those who would detract them from the truth, delusions which do not seem so unrealistic when considering how often the Wise are deceived and betrayed by those who could not understand them, or exploited for their wondrous creations. Regardless of sanity, the Wise are drawn by epiphanies. It is for this they venture out. Pure revelations of the wondrous aspects of humanity and nature, the bizarre and the beautiful alike, lead the Enlightened down their long and unpredictable journeys. And for this, they are the few who ever get to glimpse the secrets of nature at Her foundation. They know, as only they can, it is here where power truly lies. Insight (passive benefit): Each day, you have a pool of dice to draw from equal to your total Wisdom Conviction, including any points in Wayfarer or Creation, which you may add as a bonus to any roll. Wayfarer “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” - Walden (1854), Henry David Thoreau Wayfarers know only the endless road - and the faces met along the way. They seek no guide and have none, for the wisdom of any teacher could never extend where destiny leads them. They wish to break the norm and experience the truest form of nature, yes, but the epiphanies driving the Wayfarers are of another sort entirely. As often as the alternative, their creations solve only momentary crises; they are not the pinnacle reason for their existence. Instead, they explore for the sake of exploring, and find themselves gradually in the adventure. At their core, however, Wayfarers are survivalists, pushing themselves to the extremes of living in order to develop their capacity to overcome any obstacle.